(6.) Private MSS. are written partly in the square or Chaldee character, partly in the Rabbinical. The}- are held in far less esteem than the synagogue rolls, and are wont to be denominated profane (pesulini). Their form is entirely arbitrary. They are in folio, quarto, octavo,, and duodecimo. Of those written in the square char- ade?; the greater number are on parchment, some on
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MANUSCRIPTS
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public librarj"- at St. Petersburg there is a collection of He- brew IVISS. made by IMr. Firkowicz, containing several very ancient ones. The oldest date is in a roll found in a Karaite synagogue in the Crimea, viz. A.U. 489 ; but that date is very suspicious. Several fragments of rolls give, as the dates of purchase or dedication, A.D. 639, 704, 781, 789, 798, 805, 815, 843, 848.
3. A few of the oldest Hebrew ]MSS. may be briefly described here. We begin with the
Ilelali or Jlillel Codex ("^^N^il "ISO), one of the most ancient and most celebrated codices of the Hebrew Scrip- tures, which derived its name from the fact that it was written at Hilla (nbxbri), a town built near the ruins of ancient Babel. Others, however, maintain that it was called Ililali because the name of the man who wrote it was Hillel. But whatever uncertainty there may be about the derivation of its name, there can hardly be any doubt tliat it was written A.D. GOO, for Sakkuto teUs us most distinctly that when he saw the re- mainder of it (cir. A.D. 1500) the Codex was 900 years old. His words are, " In the year 4956, on the 28th of Ab (1196, better 1197), there was a great persecution of the Jews in the kingdom of Leon from the two king- doms that came to besiege it. It was then that the twenty-foiu- sacred books which were MTitten long ago, about the year 600, by R. Moses ben-Hillel (on which account the Codex was called Hilali), in an exceedingly correct manner, and after which all the copies were cor- rected, were taken away. I saw the remaining two portions of it — viz. the earlier and later prophets — writ- ten in large and beautiful characters, which were brought to Portugal and sold in Africa, where they still are, hav- ing been written 900 years ago. Kimchi, in his Gram- mar on Numb, xv, 4, says that the Pentateuch of this Codex was extant in Toleti" (Juchassin, ed. Filipowski, Lond, 1857, p. 220). The Codex had the Tiberian vow- els and accents, INIasorah and Nikud glosses, and it served up to A.D. 1500 as a model from which copies were made. The Codex which Haja had in Babylon about A.D. 1000 was convej'ed to Leon, in Spain, where the greater part of it became a prey to the fury of the martial hosts who sacked the Jewish dwellings in 1197. The celebrated grammarian, Jacob ben-Eleazar, fixed the renderings of the Biblical text according to this Codex, and the older philologians frequently quote it. Comp. Griitz, Geschichte der Juden (Lpz. 1859), vi, 132, 229; Filrst, Geschichte des Karaerthunis (Leipzic, 1869), i, 22, 138 ; Kimchi, Radicum Liber 'ed. Biesenthal et Lebrecht (BeroHni, 1847), p. 26. See Jacob ben-Eleazah.
No. 1, Pinner. This is a Pentateuch roll on leather, containing the five Mosaic books complete. It has no
•^>'31QK^^^tti
paper. The ink of the letters is always black, but the vowel points are usually written with ink of a different color from that of the consonants. Initial words and letters are frequently decorated with gold and silver col- ors. The prose parts are arranged in columns ; the po- etic in parallel numbers. Some copies are without col- umns. The columns are not always occupied with the Hebrew text alone ; for a version is frequently added, which is either written in the text after the manner of verses, or in a column by itself, or in the margin in a smaller character, Tlie number of lines is not prescribed by the Talmud. The upper and lower margin are filled ^vith the Great Masorah, and sometimes with a rabbin- ical commentary ; as also with prayers, psalms, and the like. The external margin is for corrections, scholia, variations, notices of the haphtaroth (sections from the ]irophets), parshioth (sections from the law), the com- mentaries of the rabbins, etc. The inner margin, or that between the columns, is occupied with the Little jNIasorah. The single books of the O. T. are separated from one another by spaces, except the books of Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah, which are writ- ten continuously. The sections of the law and prophets are generally marked. In the MSS. of different coun- tries the books are differently arranged. These copies generally pass through various hands before they are finished. The consonants proceed from the sopher or scribe. When the same person writes both consonants and vowels, as is frequently the case — he never makes them at the same time — the former are finished before he begins to append the latter. The Kei-is in the mar- gin uniformly proceed from the vowel-writer. It is probable that these copies were in no instance made by Christians.
The square character employed in the MSS. of which we have spoken has varieties. The Jews themselves distinguish in the synagogue rolls — 1. the Tarn letter, witli sharp corners and ])erpendicular coronulae, used among the German and Polish Jews ; 2. the Vehhe let- ter, more modern than the Ttan, and rounder, with co- ronula;, particularly found in the sacred copies of the Spanish and Oriental Jews. See Old Testa>ient.